Don't Look
by inubaka101
Summary: All magic comes with a price and witches exist to maintain the balance. Katherine Rose is one such witch. When she finds a wounded Eric in the graveyard her veterinarian instincts kick in she takes in the wounded man and his bird. What happens after is a journey to right the wrongs made on his journey of vengeance. Rated M for future chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone and welcome to this new fic! This picks up where the end of The Crow (the original 1994 movie with Brandon Lee). It is a bit AU regarding the ending of the film. Please review/comment or drop me a PM if you have any questions or concerns I can answer. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it.

October 31, 1994

" _Eric!_ " Katherine's head snapped up, eyes sweeping around the graveyard. There was no around, or at least no one near her mother's grave. The bottom of her white dress was tinged with mud, brought on from the onslaught of rain. Halloween was the night when the veil between this world and the next was its thinnest and every year the witch came to speak to her long-deceased mother. Tonight, the topic seemed to be why Katherine Rose was still single or had yet to give her a grandchild.

The twenty-three-year-old rolled her eyes where was she supposed to find a good man in Detroit of all places? That would all have to wait though because as she was leaving, someone needed her help. There was a man who was greatly injured lying against a gravestone. Her vet instincts kicked in and she rushed to his side. "Shelly?"

The name caught her off guard, as it was carved into the stone behind him. _Trauma can do some weird things to the brain_. She crouched beside him to examine his would, through and through his side. _Seems to have missed major organs, need to clean wound and stop bleeding._ "Can you stand," her voice came out more Irish than usual, a stress reaction.

His brown eyes searched her face, brow furrowing. "You're not Shelly."

She let out a bit of a scoff. "No, sorry. M' names Katherine Rose. Can you stand?"

The man groaned and pushed himself up, Katherine looped his arm over her shoulder and started to move him forward. "My car isn't far; can you make it?"

In lieu of an answer he started to shuffle forward, seemingly egged on not by his wound or by her help but by a crow that would hop forward every so often and caw at him. _Weird motivation but I'll take it._ The crow also seemed injured but she would take care of it after she got the man taken care of. What would her mother think if she could see her now, taking a random man and his pet crow home from a graveyard. Her poor Irish-Romani heart would probably give out. After a great amount of struggle (and almost dropping him a few times) she finally got him into her beat up 1986 Acura Integra. The crow perched on her dashboard and cawed at her, almost commanding her to go faster. _Harbingers, so bossy._ The radio played some grunge band she couldn't quite recall the name of. He looked like he was starting to nod off so she reached blindly and slapped his thigh. "Ay! Don't close your eyes! That's bad. Talk to me, tell me about," she paused what should she ask him about? "Shelly, who is she?"

He blinked over at her. How did she know that name? "She is-she was my fiancé."

Katherine rolled her lip between her bottom teeth. "Tell me about her when she was alive?"

He thought for a moment before answering. "She was wonderful. She lived in every moment, nothing was trivial. She cared about people in a way that most don't."

Katherine smiled and pulled into her car port. "She sounds lovely," she walked around to his side and opened the door. "Can you stand?"

The crow cawed at him and he pulled himself out of the sedan and looped an arm around her shoulder once again. "Why are you helping me?"

She paused for a moment, biting her lip again. "It's what I do, I can explain more later right now we need to get you patched up okay?"

He nodded and they slowly, but surely, shuffled into her small house and laid down on the couch. She started gathering some supplies. "You're going to need to remove your top so I can get to the wound. Do you need me to do it?"

The man started to pull at his shirt trying to lift it over his head, but with a pained groan stopped. "You'll need to."

She nodded and moved quickly to his side and quickly cut through the stretchy black synthetic material. The wound was clean and didn't seem to be too large at either entrance or exit which was good for her. "I don't have any anesthetic, would you like some whiskey or something to bite down on? We have to cauterize the wound to stop the bleeding."

"Both," came his grumbled reply.

With quick precision she poured whiskey on the wound and handed him the remnants of the brown liquid. The hiss he let out frightened her a bit, not because it was loud quite the opposite. He chugged a good bit of the whiskey and nodded at her. She handed him a leather belt which was quickly placed between his teeth. With a deep breath she picked up an iron she had plugged in nearby and looked up at him. "I'm sorry."

Without further delay she pressed the hot iron to his abdomen with one hand and used the other to attempt to restrain him. His spine arched off the couch, every muscle contracted in pain. Katherine removed the iron to inspect the wound, the iron had done its job leaving behind the smell of burning flesh. "I'm going to need to get the other side, can you move?"

He did so without question, exposing his back to her. He was covered in scars and barely healed wounds. _What have I gotten myself into?_ She braced a hand on his back and pressed the iron against the wound again, leaving it for a bit longer this time. Once it was all done she applied antiseptic, applied gauze, and wrapped his abdomen in white cloth. "Lay on your back and keep your knees up. Can I get you anything…er…"

"Eric," he rasped pushing himself into a laying position. "And no, thank you."

The crow, which had been quiet up until now let out a loud caw and came closer. "Oh yes, I'll take care of your wounds as well."

It squawked at her and spread its wings for inspection, she chuckled _Smart bird_. Once her hand met the crow, however, she was assaulted by visions of all that had come to pass. Eric and his fiancé's death at the hands of a local gang, Eric's vengeance against those gang members and their leader, and the other people he had killed. _**The balance must be maintained. THE BALANCE MUST BE MAINTAINED.**_ She gasped and jerked her hand back and stared at the crow with wide eyes. "Is that why he's still here? The balance?"

Another caw was her answer. So that's why she was lead to him, as a witch it was part of her job to maintain the balance between this world and the next. He had taken more lives than he was supposed to, lives that were not marked for his vengeance. "Why me though?"

 _ **You want a life. You must save his.**_

"Ah," her blue eyes swept up to the prone figure on her couch. "So be it."

That's it for the first chapter! Let me know what you think 😊


	2. Chapter 2

Welcome to chapter two, no major warning for this chapter it's going to be a fair bit of exposition and setting up for the whole 'Maintaining the Balance' bit. If you have any questions of course feel free to drop a comment or a private message. Hell, if you want my email you're free to ask for it. Anyway, on with the chapter.

Katherine stared at the unconscious man on her couch. She had taken in a total stranger and now she finds out that the man- Eric had killed so many people. Granted, they were low life criminals who made Detroit the human cesspool that it was. But the universe did not discriminate between in the quality of a person and the value of their life. He was _supposed_ to only kill the people directly related to his and Shelly's murder. Top Dollar, Funboy, Skank, T Bird, and Tin-Tin. Everyone else was off limits and there were a lot of collateral. She sat massaging her temples, how could they balance those scales back out? How do you save that many lives?

She had her own balance to strike out, though it didn't seem fair. Her best friend got knocked up by a real piece of shit. Abusive, alcoholic, rapist, drug dealing scum. And he refused to let her get rid of 'his baby' and she couldn't afford an abortion. So, she came to Katherine, who made an herbal tea that would terminate the pregnancy. What Izzy didn't tell her was that she had gotten into her boyfriend's stash of prescription painkillers and they interacted poorly with the tea. She died in the hospital, convulsing and vomiting. That life was on her hands and because she used her 'gift' something was taken from her as well.

Eric woke and pushed himself into sitting and looked around in a state of confusion. "Where am I?"

Katherine's head snapped up. "You're awake? What do you remember?"

"I was in the graveyard… Shelly was there-"

"Sorry," she sighed and moved to sit beside him on the beat up floral print couch. "That was me. I found you injured."

He nodded slowly. "And you healed my wounds. But I don't understand, why am I still here? I was supposed to go back, I was supposed to be with her again."

Katherine bit her bottom lip. "About that. Your uh feathered friend brought you back for a purpose-"

"To avenge Shelly. And I did that."

"Yes, that's true. But in the process, you killed people who weren't yours to kill. Nature demands a balance. You must save as many lives as you took."

His brow furrowed. "Why are you helping me?"

She laughed, a dry laugh. "I'm a witch, it's kinda my job to help maintain the balance of nature and what not."

"That can't be the only reason."

Her blue eyes searched his face, taking in the traces of theater paint. "I did something that caused someone to die. And helping you will fix that. Or at least that's what your friend says," she gestured over her shoulder at the sleeping corvid.

His brown eyes bore into hers. "What did you do?"

She looked away her head between her hands. "I tried to help a friend out and she died because of me."

They stared at each other for a while, neither speaking neither knowing what to say. Finally, Katherine spoke up. "Are you hungry? Can I get you anything?"

Eric started laughing, and couldn't stop for a while. She stared at him and eventually started laughing herself. The pair laughed until tears rolled down their faces. What else could they do in this situation? He was a man resurrected for vengeance and she was a witch who got shanghaied into helping him. "No," he answered finally. "I'm fine. Thank you."

"Well," she chuckled. "The TV remote is on the little table with the lamp. We've got all the basics. If you need food or anything to drink let me know, you probably shouldn't get up too much. I'll change your bandages later, and the bathroom is down the hall on the left."

Eric pushed himself off the couch and shuffled to the bathroom. His reflection was terrifying. Makeup smeared down his face, wounds barely healed over, chest riddled with scars. He'd be scared too. Coming back from the dead was strange enough. Now there was a witch and the crow that brought him back could talk? And Shelly. He missed her so much. He swore he saw her in the graveyard, she looked like an angel all clothed in white. A hand went to his lips, he couldn't have made that kiss up. It felt like every other kiss they had ever shared. Her soft lips molded against his like they were made to be there. They were soulmates and now they were separated by stupid rules. Why didn't the crow tell him there were rules? He washed the remaining face paint off and did his best to wash up in the sink without aggravating the wound on his side. It had already started healing, he imagined it had something to do with the witch's- Katherine's- magic and the crow's.

Katherine looked at herself in the large mirror in her bedroom, her hand drifting to her abdomen. All she had wanted was a child of her own. But her magic took its toll and robbed her of her chance to have a baby. It wasn't fair. All she had done was try to help someone out of a dangerous situation. No one _made_ Izzy take those pills, and no one _made_ her get rid of her unborn child. But no, it was all her fault somehow and so the Gods had decided to take her ability to have children. Which also took away the man she thought loved her. Three years had passed since then and nothing. According to her OB all the equipment was working correctly. But there was nothing she could do until everything was fixed. There was a nagging voice in the back of her head that told her she should be honest with Eric about what exactly she was working toward.

Katherine moved into the kitchen and started making pasta. Most people like spaghetti, right? Eric slowly shuffled back into the room and stood in the kitchen watching her move. She was making the sauce by hand, adding in spices and some tomatoes that looked pre-prepared from a mason jar. "Do you cook often?"

Katherine jumped, startled. "Ah, sorry I didn't see you standing there. But yes, I cook a lot. I like to add a bit of magic when I cook, so it keeps my immune system boosted and wards off evil. I know it sounds hinky but it works."

Eric blinked at her for a moment. "Sorry this is all new to me. Is there anything I can do to help?"

The woman chuckled. "You can get the parmesan out of the fridge?"

"Does it attract money or something?"

Another laugh. "No, it just tastes good."


End file.
